Bioinformatics Core Capability Lead
Department of Bacteriology, Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA)
New Haw, South East
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) is an Executive Agency of the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, and works on behalf of the Scottish Government and Welsh Government. Our diverse teams of over 2,000 skilled and committed professionals come together to safeguard animal and plant health for the benefit of our environment, and the economy.
The Department of Bacteriology, Bacterial Characterisation workgroup is looking for an experienced Senior Bioinformatician to provide leadership, coordination, support and development of bioinformatics and large scale genomic activities in the Department of Bacteriology. They, and their team, will work across the Department with different science teams on both translational and fundamental research, working on endemic and exotic bacteria collected from field studies, disease surveillance and outbreak investigations. In particular, they will provide critical support and guidance in delivery of whole genome sequencing pipelines to be used for disease surveillance and research.
The successful candidate will lead the core bioinformatics team, providing leadership and oversight across multiple research and surveillance projects. They will implement, maintain and update legacy systems to enhance NGS data processing pipelines. They will work with internal and external partners to ensure that the best and most robust methods are utilised. They will provide leadership for conducting genomic analysis for large scale datasets, developing cutting edge new computational/analysis tools or methods, including statistical interpretations, to understand complex genomic data. The post-holder will have line management responsibilities, be responsible for leading strategically relevant funding applications, and write high impact manuscripts. The post holder is expected to work collaboratively and contribute their expertise to expand bioinformatics capability across the Department and the wider agency, and therefore should enjoy working in multi-disciplinary teams.
We are looking for applicants with a PhD in computer science, software engineering or a related discipline, or biological sciences with a strong emphasis on bioinformatics (or equivalent experience), and demonstrable experience of strong delivery in these areas. They must have experience in programming in high level scripting languages (e.g. R, python etc), and an excellent publication record. Applications are invited from enthusiastic, self-motivated candidates, with excellent verbal and written communication skills; excellent data management skills with good analytical capabilities, including in statistical techniques, will be an advantage.
Inclusion, support and the development of our people matter to us. We aim to support the career and personal wellbeing of everyone in APHA. Our benefits include generous annual leave, a contributory pension, staff bonuses and recognition, salary sacrifice benefit options, and an employee discount scheme. We also offer flexible working.
Other Information
The Weybridge site is a strategically important national asset due to its role as a reference laboratory supporting the Government’s response to national emergencies including disease outbreaks. For this reason all post holders based on the APHA Weybridge site must hold a valid Counter Terrorist Check (CTC) security clearance or above. It is up to each person applying for a post at APHA Weybridge to ensure they meet the CTC residency criteria. Applicants must be currently resident in the UK & have between 3 to 10 years continuous UK residency depending on the level of security required.
Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 12th September 2021
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